On Sat, 1 Apr 2017 19:33:51 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 4/1/2017 12:50 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 1 Apr 2017 09:28:14 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 4/1/2017 9:20 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
My neighbor is selling his house. He has a wood shop in his basement, maybe
15 x 25. Table saw, jointer, planer, bandsaw, a couple of workbenches, etc.
The shop is at ground level, with a door to the back yard. Some pretty nice
stuff has come out that shop.

The rest of the basement is unfinished, basically one large room with the
furnace, water heater, washer, dryer and some storage shelves. Oh yeah,
there's a shower stall bathroom in the corner. The basement can be accessed
by stairs from the kitchen or through the shop. They are 2 separate spaces.
It's sloped lot, allowing for a walk-out basement in the rear for the shop.

His realtor has told him that he should empty the shop before showing the
house, so he has moved all of his equipment and material to storage until
his new house is ready.

What are your thoughts? Would you have left the shop as staging or emptied
the room like the realtor suggested? I know we are biased, so maybe we aren't
the right people to ask. ;-) If staging bedrooms and kitchens is all the
rage these days, why not stage a shop?


If you have a place to move the equipment to, move it out. As hard as
this is to believe, not every man is a "He-man" and he may not, if he
even has any say in the matter, care to see wood working equipment. ;~)

Even though some may not be "He-men" (do you know any?-), most see
themselves that way. Even though they may not be avid woodworkers
most would like some sort of place to get away. Home maintenance does
take some space, too.

Did you not see my tongue in my cheek? ;!)

Tough to tell what's serious and what's not, today. ;-)



An empty room just looks bigger and uncluttered, that is what the
realtor and perspective buyers want to see for a storage area.
Basically the area is not only intended to be a shop and a perspective
buyer may see it as only a room intended to be a shop if it is filled
with equipment. If the room is empty the buyer can see it as any thing
he or she wants it to be.

Filled, no. Used, yes. People really do want to see "lived-in"
spaces. There is a whole home "staging" industry for a reason.


Understood and why I specifically mentioned "storage area" and not a
specific room in the house, like a bedroom, living room, dining room,
etc. An unmodified basement it typically storage.

"Unmodified"? You mean "unfinished"? It's all about proportion. If
the space is cramped, it'll look small, no matter what its true size.
If it's bright and open, it won't. Like I said before my ~2500 ft^2
of unfinished basement isn't going to be anyone's "storage space". No
one has that much crap. Well, no one is going to _move_ that much
crap. After 20 years... ;-)